First and foremost, how the HELL is it Christmas already!?! I know that’s a painfully cliched thing to say. Not to mention something you’ve already had pointless conversations about with every friend/family member/colleague/uber driver/human that you’ve encountered over the past few weeks. But seriously, wasn’t it August just the other day!? Not complaining though. For one thing, I’m pretty happy to see the back of 2017 and very excited for the year to come. More importantly, the arrival of peak festive season makes dressing up in the sparkliest, fanciest, most OTT ensembles totally acceptable at all times. Feel like turning up to a casual family brunch resembling the lovechild of Mariah Carey and the Nutcracker Prince? Go for it! No one can dare hate on your extra-ness or complain about finding a stray sequin in their scrambled eggs without seeming mean spirited… Merry Christmas one and all!

Every family has their own individual set of Christmas traditions; leisurely lie in or up early to open stockings before church, hearty walk or tv marathon, what time the big meal itself takes place, charades vs monopoly, who falls out with who over the washing up every single year… The list goes on. What you wear and/or how many outfit changes you throw during the day has its own set of time honoured traditions, in my experience at least. My usual look line up kicks off with casual wear for stocking opening and coffee mimosas. In the past that’s taken the form of tartan pyjamas and this year I’ll be debuting a delicious cashmere tracksuit that, given how incapable I am of not spilling stuff on myself could potentially be destroyed within ten minutes. Then it’s time for outfit change numero uno which inevitably involves enough layers to avoid getting hypothermia from spending a good hour shivering in a cold Church. Despite the fact that Christmas is literally the only time a year that my mum actually goes to Church – and, by her own admittance, is only there for the atmosphere – she somehow always manages to guilt me into going with her. Once back home I usually try to change back into my pyjamas/tracksuit, get told off for doing so and reluctantly continue wearing actual clothes. Opening presents, playing board games, drinking consistently and pretending to help with the cooking may not be activities that necessitate such sartorial constraints but having had that argument 25 Christmases in a row, I know full well it’s one I’ll never win. Not that we won’t have it again this year with exactly the same result… Gotta love those family traditions eh!

Moving on from that particular annual argument to the most important outfit of my Christmas day, and indeed the point of this post, dinner attire. For as long as I can remember we’ve have had our “big meal” in the evening which makes absolute sense to me for several reasons. One obvious benefit is that you can pass out in a food and/or booze induced stupor directly after polishing off the turkey without anyone expecting you to do anything other than pass the gin and/or mince pies, then watch Love Actually for the millionth time before waddling off to bed. The whole suppertime situation also brings my penultimate and by far favourite Christmas day outfit change, cocktail attire. There are some festive family traditions I could happily say goodbye to but this one I insist on sticking to and insist on everyone else sticking to too. My brother will be forced into something vaguely suave no matter how strongly he tries to resist or the impact my making him wear a semi decent shirt might have on our relationship.

As you might have guessed by now, this is the outfit I plan on wearing for Christmas dinner 2017. I’m slightly obsessed tbh and am potentially going to wear it for New Year’s Eve too. The little lace number is by Sonia H, a contemporary womenswear brand who make the most divine party pieces imaginable. I’m planning on pairing it with sky high Kurt Geiger stilettos and my Charlotte Olympia embellished box clutch. As I may have mentioned once or twice already in the post, Christmas for me is an excuse to really get my glam on. So this year I’ll be upping the accessory anti by adding lashings of Lowndes London jewellery. Named after the iconic Belgravia square, Lowndes is a contemporary jewellery brand whose pieces are inspired by the rich history of London’s high society. Their key collections, Georgiana, Ranelagh, Salisbury and Almack all reflect different tales of the city’s past and future. My personal favourites are the rose gold Almack pieces which, as luck would have it, work perfectly with my Christmas cocktail dress.

What do you think of this outfit? I’d love to know what you guys will be wearing. And of course, Happy Christmas! See you in 2018…

Love Ella X

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La Petite Anglaise is a London based fashion, lifestyle and beauty site launched by Ella Catliff in May 2010.